RIP Storify

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The Storify logo appeared to be an “S” or was it begin and end single quotes? Storify is at an end.

For the past seven-plus years, I’ve made 34 Storify stories by combining posts from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to tell stories in different ways. At the time I started, it felt like a great possibility for storytelling in general (check out this Storify) and the future of journalism in particular.

Storify will come to an end on May 16, 2018—and so will access to all the stories people created over the years.

So here’s a look back before it leaves.

Continue reading →

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The portable video game truck

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We heard the screams from down the block during our evening walk. They could’ve been coming out of any of the homes in the neighborhood, sounds muffled with windows and doors closed up from the heat.

Then we turned a corner and saw this truck.

Maybe it was a birthday party inside. Kids were screaming. Now and then, a loud thump echoed out: feet stamping the floor? fits hitting the wall?

Imagine: being a kid and getting to walk across your lawn and being sealed up in a truck and getting to play video games with your friends, shielded away from your parents eyes?

Imagine: having a birthday party for a kid, and never having to have the cake and ice cream sticky finger video game playing kids in the house?

So is this the future?

 

 

 

Thank you, Mithila Review!

My new speculative poem, Instructions for Astronauts, appears in the new edition of The Mithila Review!

It has also been made into a video. Check it out:

 

Ajapa Sharma, one of the co-founding editors of the journal, writes in the introduction:

When we read Michael Janairo’s submission “Instructions for Astronauts” for this issue, it resonated with some of the themes of our favorite space-based films and series. SyFy’s series based on James S.A. Corey’s Hugo award winning books, The Expanse has been our staple since season 2 of the series started airing in February. Against all criticisms, we’ve also thoroughly enjoyed Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and are eagerly waiting to watch Alien: Covenant later this year. Janairo’s poem captured elements that have traditionally been a part of science fiction’s visual corpus and his stellar voice quality made it all the more adaptable for a film. Working with Michael’s poetry, it became evident that good visual material can only come from excellent writing. The visual, after all, is an innovative translation of a textual script. The hope is that the video will become a medium through which Janairo’s poetry can travel far and wide.

Excerpt From: Salik Shah, Editor. “Mithila Review – Issue 8.”

Video: Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s “Can’t Help Myself”

In Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s “Can’t Help Myself,” an industrial robot works away inside a glass box at the Guggenheim Museum.

What’s it made of? Kuka industrial robot, stainless steel and rubber, cellulose ether in colored water, lighting grid with Cognex visual-recognition sensors, and polycarbonate wall with aluminum frame.

Is it making art? Is it commenting on how art is made? As a robot uses a giant brush to push liquid around, are we watching a creative act or a programmed act? What determines these actions? Where does this leave viewers? In awe of a machine in motion?

Check out one of the Guggenheim’s newest additions to its collection: